If I may make a suggestion regarding Samantha Shelton’s opinion piece on the tailgating fiasco titled “Fans overreact concerning tailgating” on Wednesday, March 24, I recommend that in the future, the editorial board leave off the headline and allow Ms. Shelton’s work to speak for itself. 

Typically, such headlines are helpful in distilling the general purpose of a piece to a single line, but in this case, it had a negative side effect — it made me believe I was about to read an actual piece of journalism.

A more adequate title than “Fans overreact concerning tailgating” might have been “Look at me, I’m snarky!” Amidst all the various opinions and debates over President Adams’ decision regarding North Campus tailgating, Ms. Shelton seems content to flaunt her superiority complex and outright contempt for her peers. 

In characterizing UGA football fans as a destructive, drunken orgy that gathers once a week during fall semester to destroy campus property, Ms. Shelton blatantly disregards the positive elements of the tailgating experience. 

One would think that the author of a column (“Sex in the Classic City”) so frequently accused of promoting shameless promiscuity and “slutty” behavior would have been more understanding.

The opinions page of a newspaper ought to be a place for thoughtful, reasoned debate. Occasionally, more passionate writing is called for, and a limited amount of snark may be appropriate. 

It is not, however, a place for a mean-spirited girl who considers herself a budding comedienne to mock her peers with little to no editorial purpose to speak of. 

I could find virtually nothing of merit in Ms. Shelton’s piece, save for a mention of the costs of replanting North Campus, which is a salient point. But it belonged in an actual editorial.

Brendan Boyle

Freshman, Alpharetta

Comparative literature

Portrayal of tailgaters in column stereotypical

As I read Samantha Shelton’s column about fans overreacting to President Michael Adams’ limitations to tailgating, I more felt sorry for her than related to her message. 

I thoroughly enjoy tailgating every Saturday like many or most of my fellow students here, especially on North Campus. Her attempt to portray the average tailgater at UGA was pathetic to say the least. 

Just because you, Samantha,  don’t have any connection to or interest in football and have maybe witnessed a small percentage of the things you mentioned, doesn’t mean that every tailgater is drunk beyond the point of coherency. 

I can only imagine how your Saturdays are compared to the people at this university who go out and support their team and their school.  

You make it sound as though a bunch of strangers getting together on Saturdays to drink beer, eat food, be with friends and family, enjoying the outdoors and rooting on our beloved football team is wrong or undeserved by students.  

Yes, academics are obviously important to the students here, but so is football, whether you, Samantha, happen to enjoy it or not. Sounds like Samantha needs to get out a little more. 

Justin Tennant

Senior, Kennesaw

Housing and consumer economics

Message in column lost amidst writer’s ‘attacks’

Though I understand and appreciate the point that Ms. Samantha Shelton tried to make in her column, I wish she would have found a less extreme and less offensive way to deliver it. 

Most people reading her article will choose to ignore the message and instead focus on her attacks on the student body. The image she is portraying of the Bulldawg  nation only fits a small percentage of people.

 Personally, I’ve never once gotten so drunk that I’ve missed a game, and neither have any of my three roommates. I feel as if Ms. Shelton just wrote this column to get attention rather than to get across the message that yes, we as a student body should be more appreciative of North Campus and not our tailgating experience.

Jamie Lewis

Sophomore, Marietta

English

Tailgate traditions part of college experience

Samantha Shelton, your article in Wednesday’s paper was one of the most contentious, arrogant, ignorant, disrespectful, rude and just plain offensive pieces I have ever seen in The Red & Black, and I am ashamed to know it was written by someone from the University of Georgia. 

You make a mockery of the university I love, and it was based on ignorant opinions at that. You insult the traditions that make attending this university one of the best college experiences in the nation. If you don’t want G’s on your cheek, stay home and don’t judge those who do. 

If you don’t want to dress up in your Saturday best to cheer on the Dawgs with 92,746 (yes, I do know that number by heart) of your best friends six Saturdays a year in Athens, then stay home and don’t judge those who do. 

If you don’t love the tens of thousands of people that join us every home game from all over the state to cheer on the Dawgs, stay home and don’t judge those who do.

 And unless you don’t believe in the 21st amendment, Georgia state statutes, Athens-Clarke County ordinances, and University policy, then I would pretty safely say it actually is indeed the right of every person in Athens over the age 21 to shotgun a Bud Light, funnel a Natty and get drunk if they please on game day. It is up to the Athens-Clarke County Police, not your judgment, to determine if they have exceeded that right or violated other’s legal rights in the process. 

Matthew Sowell

Freshman, Lilburn

Pre-business

Disagreements based on lack of knowledge

 As the health care debate has waged on, I have been astounded by the amount of wrath shown by those on both sides of the argument. 

Kate Parham wrote an article about how it does not seem right to give people the exact same care while giving some a greater financial burden than others. She was then accused of being a rich girl who doesn’t know what she’s talking about and that she is morally deficient. All I can say is people need to chill out. Many people, who believe that everyone has a right to health care, don’t seem to realize that many opposing the bill do so because of economic reasons. 

… Everybody needs to realize that everybody believes the way they do because they believe it is best for society.

Whitney Hall 

Junior, Suwanee

Mathematics

Trains transporting coal disrupt statistic classes

Though the negative externalities of burning coal on the environment and health of community members has been mentioned, there is another issue that is exceptionally pertinent to UGA statistics students. 

The statistics building lies approximately five feet from the train tracks that the coal is transported by. This means every time a delivery is made class is interrupted. Trains can be loud from miles away, but imagine having it right outside your classroom window. 

So all environmentalism aside, our reliance on coal is an interference to learning, and isn’t that what we as students are here to do?

Heather Hatzenbuhler

Freshman, Lawrenceville

Environmental economics 

and management

Intern, UGA Beyond Coal